


Diamonds in the Rough

by Leticheecopae



Category: Hiveswap
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Joey being super protective, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 14:25:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13009743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leticheecopae/pseuds/Leticheecopae
Summary: After fleeing the burning homes of Xefros' hive block, he tells Joey a little more about his life, especially stories about his moirail, Demmek. Joey learns quickly that Xefros doesn't need a moirail, whatever that is, and really just needs a best friend.





	Diamonds in the Rough

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TiniBopper](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiniBopper/gifts).



> A thank you to Tinibopper for the request (and for figuring out the title)! I had lots of fun writing it. I did take some liberties with troll anatomy/headcanons on how they grow up. 
> 
> Enjoy Joey wanting to punch someone she's never met in the face.

“Is this okay?” Joey looks up at the thick canopy of leaves, eyes squinting as she tries to find even a little moon or starlight filtering through. 

“Um, I think so?” Xefros looks around as well. Without the flashlight, Joey can only tell that he’s shifting by the way her jacket tugs on her shoulders. Once they had really started moving, it became clear Xefros would either have to cling to her or fall off. “I mean, it should work for now. It would be better if we could get to our fan’s place, but there’s too much of a chance that we’ll get caught in the sun, and if we do then….well.”

Joey shifts in the saddle and turns the flashlight back on. Xefros jumps, his large pupils dilating down so quickly it startles her, then makes her smile. He gives a timid smile back.

“Is your sun really that bad?” she asks as she slides off of Cornibuster the catdeer.

“Yeah, is yours not?” Xefros goes to get off Cornibuster, winces, and Joey finds herself having to half catch him to get him down.

“Well, I can at least stand outside in mine,” she replies with a gentle smile. “You okay?”

He looks up at her, cheeks looking a bit dark; she can’t tell if it’s bruising or a blush.

“Yeah, just, little banged up.” He gives a wince that might have been an attempt at a smile.

“A little? You were buried under a pile of rubble! From a bomb!”

“Yeah, not the worst thing that’s happened, so don’t worry. I’ll live.”

Joey stares at him before heaving a sigh and asking, “Okay, what was the worst?”

“Oh, well.” Xefros kicks the ground. “It really wasn’t _that_ bad. It was just a training exercise that went a little wrong. Demmek and I were practicing with firearms, and it turns out one of them was illegal for a rust to use. Someone reported us to the drones, so they bombed my hive as a warning.”

Xefros picks at a place on his arm that looks slightly discolored. “I was more burns than anything until my next pupation, but Demmek was there to help me with my training and everything, so it was okay. Nothing like a fresh molt to get rid of the more superficial scars.” He gives her a humorless, small smile.

“Wait, you were covered in burns until you...pupated?” Joey’s head reels. Is that what that little, lighter gray spot is? A burn scar? She searches his body and sees a few more. But if he had been mostly burns then… She decides not to try and figure it out as she turns her attention back to Xefros.

“Yeah, pupation. How else would you enter your adolescence stage?”

“You...grow? That’s why it’s called ‘growing up’.”

“Well, yeah, but your skin can only stretch so far until it needs to be shed and—”

“You shed your skin?”

“Of course we— Wait, you don’t shed your skin? Do human’s not make cocoons or--?”

“YOU MAKE COCOONS!?” Joey quickly slaps a hand over her mouth. Whoops.

Her and Xefros stand in the beam of her flashlight, eyes searching the dark for any movement. For a short while, Joey thinks they might be okay. At least, until Cornibuster jerks their head to the side and makes a slight growl. 

Joey and Xefros turn in the direction as well, and Joey quickly clicks off the flashlight. Far off, Joey thinks she can hear something clicking; she can’t tell if the slight blue light she sees is an afterimage from her flashlight or something else.

“Come on,” she whispers as she helps Xefros back into the saddle, the feat a bit harder in the dark. He holds back a groan. She climbs up and is happy when she feels a hand immediately grab her jacket. Cornibuster moves without her having to spur them on. Joey keeps a tight grip on the lusus’ reigns in one hand, and keeps her light gripped tight; ready to smash in the face of the first drone she sees. 

\-----

“You really don’t have to do that.” Xefros’s voice is soft as Joey wraps his arm. The veterinarian kit may be meant for animals, but it’s just as good for huma—, er, trolls.

“Of course I do! You’re hurt.” Joey reaches into the case, having to go more by touch than sight. The firelight does a good job of showing Xefros’s arm, but it casts a deep shadow into the bag. Hopefully, he’s right, and the ‘drones’ won’t be able to see the flames this far in the cave system.

“Yeah, but, I should do it to myself. I mean, I know how to.” He stares down at his hurt arm.

“You know how to set your own bones?” She stares at him wide-eyed. 

“Well yeah. I mean, the medical institution always has a long line for lowbloods, so learning stuff like this is pretty common. I had to set Demmak’s arm before. He made me practice on myself first, of course, but-”

“Whoa, whoa, wait,” Joey pauses her wrapping. “How did he have you _practice_?”

“Oh, he had me break my finger.” Xefros lifts his hand and extends his pinky finger. It is slightly crooked. “He told me it was the least helpful part of the body, so if it didn’t heal right it wasn’t a big deal, and broken fingers aren’t uncommon for-”

“Let me guess, low-bloods.”

“Yeah!” Xefros beams at her. “See, you’re getting it.”

“It shouldn’t be something I need to get,” Joey grumbles. “You shouldn’t be treated like some sort of practice dummy just because your blood is a different color.”

“You mean, humans don’t have a caste system?”

“Of course n—!” Xefros’s hand comes up and covers her mouth; his wide eyes look towards the mouth of the cave in fear as Joey’s voice bounces around them. She quickly drops her volume and pushes his hand away. “Of course not. We all have the same blood color.”

“Oh, wow, does that mean everyone looks like you too?” Xefros winces a little as Joey ties off the arm splint.

“Well, no. I mean, my brother looks like me, but my babysitter doesn’t look like me at all. she has lighter skin and lighter hair, so-”

“So you do have different colors?”

Joey pauses. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“And no one cares?”

She goes to say ‘of course not’ but pauses. “Some people do, I guess,” she relents. “But they’re assholes, and they’re in the minority,” she adds quickly.

“Really?”

Joey nods, though inwardly she thinks _’I hope so’_. “It’s not a caste system though,” she continues. “When people say one color is better than another it's called ‘racism’ on our planet, and it’s not a good thing. A lot of people fight against it.”

“Oh, kind of like the Signless.”

“Signless?” Joey starts to pack the medical stuff away.

“Yeah, Signless. He tried to fix the caste system. He thought it wasn’t fair either. Demmek really looks up to his teachings, though he thinks he didn’t use enough force.”

“Force isn’t everything.” Joey snaps the medical bag shut.

“Maybe not on your planet.” Xefros gives a gentle, pitying smile. Something sits wrong in Joey’s stomach.

“Don’t trolls ever just...talk?”

“Oh yeah, of course. We just usually talk with our moirails.”

Joey leans back against Cornibuster, the catdeer sleeping soundly behind her. “What exactly is a moirail?” He’s used the word a few times now, but she can’t fathom what he means.

“They’re the one you pity the most! They help take care of you, and teach you, and make sure you don’t die. Demmek’s mine and-”

“Demmek!?” she hisses. “But he sounds horrible!”

Xefros frowns. “No, he’s not. If not for him I wouldn’t know how to set bones, or been taught how to sing, or have someone to be a butler for that-”

“Wait, you’re his butler too?” Joey’s head reels. “This makes no sense.”

“No, no it makes perfect sense.” Xefros scoots closer to her and the fire, gesturing with his unbandaged arm. “See, rust-bloods always have jobs like cleaning, serving, and so on. If I didn’t butler for him, then I would be put into another hive, possibly with someone not as nice as Demmek. At least if I mess up with Demmek, I don’t have to worry about being culled. So he’s doing me a favor.”

“He’s doing you a favor by making you clean his ho-er-hive?”

Xefors nods quickly. “Yeah, well, I mean when he lets me. He doesn’t like me touching his stuff very much, so when the drones come do inspections I get in trouble a lot, but at least he-”

“Okay, stop.” Joey puts out her hands. “You’re telling me that the drones, the same drones that are chasing us, and bombed your house, come do inspections based on your work. Work Demmek won’t let you do?”

“Well, yeah. He’s afraid that I’ll-”

“I’m going to punch him.”

Xefros’s eyes go wide. “What, no! Why would-”

“Because he’s horrible!” Joey whisper-screams, doing her best to keep her voice down. “He has you do all these things for him, but it sounds like he doesn’t do anything back.”

“Be he pro-”

“He does not protect you,” Joey bites out. “If he did, he would let you do what you need to do to _not_ be hurt by the drones; he wouldn’t take your hover pad, which you need for your lusus, and not give it back; he wouldn’t demand you break your own bones just so you can fix his ‘correctly’;” she says with violent air quotes, “And he wouldn’t make you do all these horribly dangerous things.”

“But…” Xefros drops his eyes. “But that’s the best kind of moirail a rust-”

“Nope.” Joey gets up. “Nope, nu-uh. Don’t say it.” She rustles around in her sylladex until a blanket pops out. “If that’s what a moirail is, then you don’t need one. You need what we on earth call a friend, a best friend, and seeing as Demmek is a piss poor excuse for even that, _I’m_ going to be your best friend.” She lays the blanket down and motions for Xefros to come closer. 

He hesitates at first, but he ends up scooting over, wincing a little when he jars his arm and kneels on his bruised leg. Joey feels like her heart is going to pop. 

As soon as he is situated, Joey sits next to him, as close as she can, and brings the blanket around them both. It is just big enough to cover their shoulders and lower legs, gaping in the middle to the heat of the fire.

“From now on, Xefros, I promise you I am going to be the best friend you could ever have.” She takes his good hand. “I am going to make sure nothing hurts you, that I’ll take care of you if anything does manage to, and that you’re never going to have to purposefully break another bone. Ever.” 

She stares at him, fingers stroking over his crooked pinky. She can see slight tints of rusty red in the corners of Xefros’s eyes.

“W-wow,” he stutters, voice thick. He quickly looks away from her. “That’s...does that mean you’re, um….pale for me?”

“If that’s what you call friendship on this planet, then yes; I am the palest gal on this planet. So pale, if I were to go walk out under that moon, it would make me glow.”

Xefros smiles softly. “Wow,” he whispers, then the smile suddenly drops. “But what about Demmek? I don’t think he’s going to like it if you take over being my moirail.”

“Demmek can eat catdeer poop from a litterbox for all I care.”

“What’s a litter box?”

“Not important.” Joey moves so she can give Xefros a gentle side-hug. “What’s important is that if Demmek so much as tries to order you to wiggle your toes, I am going to pop him one right in his smug face. At least, I’m going to assume it’s smug. He sounds like he’d be smug.”

Xefros lets out a little laugh. “He’s very smug.”

Joey gives a sharp nod. “Then it is settled. I am your new best friend slash Moirail, and if Demmek has a problem with that, then he’ll just have to dance battle me.”

“He’d probably just use a gun.”

Joey pulls a face. “Guns are for cowards. I’d know.”

Xefros looks like he wants to say something against that, but he closes his mouth and nods. 

“Yeah,” he agrees as he lets Joey pull him closer, the two of them snuggling back into Cornibuster. As the fire starts to dim, and the sun comes out, they fall asleep to Cornibuster’s gentle breathing; their pinkies hooked together.


End file.
